CHEYNE, GEORGE, was born in Scotland, in the year 1670. He vas at first intended for the church, but after attending the lectures if Dr. Archibald Pitcairn, he determined to practise medicine. Having faken his Doctor's degree, he came to London about 1700, and soou after published his Theory of Fevers,' in which he attempts to explain he doctrine of secretion on mechanical principles. His next work, On Fluxiens,' was published in 1705, and procured his admission nto the Royal Society. At a maturer age he called this a juvenile woductiou, and acknowledged that it was justly censured by Do iloivre, to whom and to Dr. Oliphant he makes an apology in the preface to his' Emmy on Health and Long Life,' for having treated their criticisms with rudeness. Hie 'Philosophical Principles of Natural It ligion,' coutelning the elements of natural philosophy, and the eviilenee of natural religion to be deduced from them, was dedicated to the Ferri of Roxburgh, for whose use It appears to have been written.
Cheyne's natural dIspoeition to oorpolency was so increased by full living in London. that in a few years he became "fat, abort-breathed, lethargic, and listless." His health gradually lank, and, after trying • variety of treatment with little benefit., he confined himself to milk, with " seeds, bread, mealy roots, and fruit." The experiment aim ceeded, and be was soon relieved of his most distressing symptoms. Daring his illness, being deserted by his old associates, be began to look to religion for and at last "came to this firm and settled resolution in the main, viz, to neglect nothing to secure my eternal peace, more than if I had been certified I should die within the day ; nor to mind anything that my secular obligation. and duties demanded of me, lase than If I had been ensured to live fifty years more. This, though with infinite weakness and imper fection, has been my settled intention in the main since." ("The English klalsdy; 2nd edit, p. 334.) In 1722 he published au Essay on the true Nature and due Method of treating the Gout? together with the virtues of the Bath waters, and the nature and cure of most chronic diseases. He bad resided at
Bath during the summers of several years, and attributed much of the benefit he had received to drinking the waters. In 1724 appeared his wellinown 'Essay on Health and Long Life,' in which he in culcates the necessity of a strict regimen, particularly in diet, both In preventing and curing diseases. It was dedicated to Sir Joseph Jekyll, Master of the Rolls, who had been under the author's care. In the preface he given an account of his former works, which he censures where faulty, with greet frankness, particularly when he had treated other writers with levity or disrespect. In 1733 ho brought out his ' English Malady,' a treatise on the spleen and vapours, as well as hysteria and hypochondriacal diseases in general. This work, once very popular, contains a very minute account of the author's own case. It appears that on his recovery he gradually returned to a more generous diet. " However for near twenty years I continued sober, moderate, and plain in my diet, and id my greatest health drank not above a quart, or three pinta at moat, of wine any day (which I then absurdly thought necessary in my bulk and stowage, though certainly by far an overdose), and that at dinner only, one half with my meat, with water, the other after, but none more that day, never tasting any supper, and at breakfast nothing but green tea, without any astable ; but by these means every dinner necessarily became a surfeit and a debauch ; and In ten or twelve years I swelled to such an enormous size, that upon my last weighing I exceeded 32 stone. My breath became eo short, that upon stepping into my chariot quickly, and with some effort, I was ready to faint away for want of breath, and my face turned black." (' The English Malady,' 2nd edit., Lend., 1734, p. 342.) Ile now returned to hie low diet, and with the same success as before, though it required a longer time to re-establish his health. The proposal of a milk diet appears to have afforded much diversion to contemporary wits, some of whose gibes and sarcasms rather ruffled our author'a complacency. Dr. Cheyne died at Bath, in 1742, at the age of 72.